|
||||||||
|
Abstract This case explores the experiences and thoughts of Maricella, a fourteen year-old woman who is considering seeking employment in a greenhouse outside Bogota, Colombia. Maricella's mother and older sister, who do greenhouse work, urge her not to do this, but to continue her education at school. Maricella's sister, Anna, who works in the United States as a domestic worker, with no formal papers of residency, invites Maricella to go to Los Angeles to both study and send money home. Maricella does not want to leave Colombia but does want to study further. Students are asked to assess Maricella’s options. The case would work well in courses to do with development, women’s studies, and work, among others. Back to top Case Text Printable format (Adobe PDF) Scene It is 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon at a small two room structure outside Bogota, Colombia. Characters: Gloria - a thirty-nine year old mother of four who has been working at Floracarnation for ten years. She is having health problems due to the way the carnations are cultivated with extensive use of pesticides. She is active in a group of workers who are hoping to have a union, not the usual association of workers with management, at Floracarnation in the coming year. Lorena- Gloria’s twenty-two year old daughter who is married to Rodrigo who works in transporting the flowers once they are cut. They have a small child, Amalia. Lorena works at Florarosa, a greenhouse where the work conditions are better than at many other greenhouses, and where, although they only employ people with the usual productivity-driven, renewable, three-month contracts, they also are known to be an employer that “takes care” of its workers by allowing them breaks during the day. Maricella - a fourteen year old girl, daughter of Gloria and sister to Lorena who wants to go to university but thinks she should work in a greenhouse, like her sister and mother, to help her family financially. The family also consists of Anna (twenty years old) who lives in Los Angeles, CA and Julio (twenty-one) who lives in Bogota working in temporary laboring jobs. “Maricella, Maricella, come inside.” “Coming - just let me finish this chapter.” “All right, mi cara. Dinner will be ready in five minutes. Lorena and her children are coming, don’t forget.” It is Sunday evening, in a two-room structure outside Bogota, Colombia. Maricella is fourteen years old and supposed to be getting ready for going to school the next day, but has been sidetracked by writing in her diary. Her mother, Gloria, is thirty-nine and works in the greenhouses near their home, where she is employed by a large corporation, Floracarnation. Gloria has, unlike most workers in the flower industry, been working in this job for ten years, and is starting to feel the effects of the pesticides and other chemicals that are used to ensure high yields of carnations for export to USA and Canada. She is now used to the headaches and stinging eyes that have developed since working at Florarosa, but in the past three months has been wondering whether she should find a doctor because her menstrual cycle is rather odd. Sometimes, she says to her friends, she is glad that all her four children are almost grown up, because she has a feeling that the nausea she experiences every month suggests that something is wrong with her ovaries and she is worried it is cancer. Gloria’s husband died over ten years ago, when the children were twelve (Lorena), eleven (Julio), ten (Anna), and four (Maricella). At that time, Floracarnation opened a new greenhouse operation 100 meters from her home, and Gloria decided that she should work there so that she and the children could stay together. For reasons that no one quite understands, Gloria was given a full-time, permanent contract with Floracarnation a few years ago, which means that she has a steady income. Lorena lives nearby with her two children in a brick built house and also works in the flower industry, but in a neighboring greenhouse (Florarosa) where she says the conditions are much better for the workers than at Floracarnation. Lorena wants her mother and sister to live with her, but Gloria is adamant that she wants to stay in her own home with Maricella, at least until Maricella goes to university. Julio lives in the centre of Bogota working in temporary laboring jobs, and comes to see his mother when he can, about once a month, with his young men friends. The family are sad that Anna, now twenty, is in Los Angeles, although from her letters they see that she is very happy with her husband and her job as an informatics processor. Anna left Colombia three years ago, when she went to the United States with her husband who wanted to escape the tensions of living in Bogota. Maricella is the baby of the family. She is fourteen, loves school, especially writing poetry and short stories, and also spends as much time as she can writing in her diary. She knows that her mother will do anything to make sure that Maricella can go to university, a possibility that Maricella would love to have. But Maricella feels that she cannot do that because her mother would have to continue working at Floracarnation to make sure that her daughter can be at university. As a result, Maricella has been seeking work nearby so that she can give her mother some money, and also send some to Anna who seems to be short of money quite often. Tonight, Maricella intends to tell them all that she will begin work at Florexpo (eight kilometers away from their house) for they have the highest wages of anyone in the area. Extract from Maricella’s Journal last week: 10th April I feel so sad that Mummy’s health is getting worse. She treats me like a little baby and will not tell me what is wrong, but I know that her periods are making her feel tired all the time. Well, I am big now and I am going to find some work so that I can give her money and send some to Anna. I am worried about Anna - she needs money but she does not want to tell Mummy or Lorena, and Julio is loving but just does not realize how much money we need at home. Mummy does not want to ask him for any money, because she says “boys will be boys.” I heard her say to Lorena yesterday that Julio has plenty of time left in his life to be responsible and take care of a house, wife, and children. I do not think Mummy knows that Julio is not interested in getting married. He and Lorena whisper about it sometimes and won’t tell me what they say. But I know more than they think. I have to go to the Florexpo greenhouse tomorrow after school. I saw that they need people to help them grow orchids. I am going to say that I am sixteen and that my family does not want me to live in the house with them any more because they found me with a boy, and so I have to get a job. I am a little scared - it is hard to be an adult when you are not sure if you want to do some of they things grown ups do. Maricella’s journal today: 18th April: afternoon Lorena is coming today, She is very loving but because she is my big sister, she always thinks she can tell me and Mummy what to do. She says I should not keep studying so hard because there is no money for me to go to university anyway. Mummy always defends me and says that I must go to university - she is proud that I like to read and write in my books whenever I can. I do want to study more, but it is so hard to get a scholarship to pay for university, and even if I did get one, Mummy would still need to work to make sure I had enough money for books and food as well. Lorena is always trying to get Mummy to work at Florarosa with her. She says that the workers at Florarosa are much better looked after than at Floracarnation, but Mummy says that she has been at Floracarnation for a long time now, and there is a chance that unions might come in next year to help the workers. Lorena does not think unions in the flower industry do much for the workers - she says they just take money from the workers and then go and have a beer with the managers. She says Florarosa does not have unions, but gives all its workers fifteen minute breaks in the morning and afternoon, and also protects the women from nasty foremen. She then whispered something to Mummy, who told her not to say any more in front of me. I HATE it when they treat me like a baby. “Here I am Mummy, what do you want me to do?” “You can cut up the vegetables for the dinner, I have put the pan on the charcoal and when the water boils - make sure it is boiling fast - put them in for just two minutes. I must go and wash my face and put on some lipstick otherwise Lorena will tell me I look tired and that I should stop working and we should go and live with her family. Oh, you children - you all think you know better than me.” “I don’t Mummy…” “Hello, hello - we’re here!” Lorena comes in with Amalia, her three year old daughter. “Here is a bunch of roses I got from work. Put them in the water quickly.” “Lorena and Amalia - hello. What beautiful flowers - thank you. Where is Rodrigo? I am just coming - let me go and put on some lipstick.” “He had to work today. His company asked him if he would drive a lorry of flowers to Bogota to get the plane for New York. It is Mother’s Day in America in two days’ time, so the flowers must be up there soon. He will be paid a lot of overtime because he has to make sure that the flowers are cold all the way to Bogota, and that they are taken carefully from the lorry so that they are in perfect condition for selling. His company let me go with him whenever we want, but I was too tired to go all that way. He will come back much later tonight. He was sorry to miss your food. Hi kid sister - what’s cooking?” “Mummy went and bought chicken from the Martinez house up the street - they had just killed it today so it will be really fresh. She cooked it in my favorite way.” “Delicious. Amalia, go and play outside - go and play with the children from behind the house until I call you in for dinner.” Amalia goes out. Mummy, Amalia has been having some trouble breathing. I think the pesticides from Floracarnation are affecting her breathing and the doctor says we should move away from here if she is not to get any worse.” “Poor Amalia. What can we do? I hope you don’t go too far way, mi cara: it is so nice that you can walk here in five minutes. I like to have you two girls near me now that Julio only comes once a month and Anna is so far away. I don’t know when I will see her next. And then if you move away...” “Don’t worry - we won’t go far. Why don’t you and Maricella come and live with us? We can get a bigger house. Florarosa pays me good money and Rodrigo also gets good wages from his transportation firm.” “We can talk about this later - the chicken is perfectly cooked so let us sit down and eat. Amalia - come and eat.” After dinner, Amalia falls asleep in her mother’s lap, and is put down on a cushion. “I have something to tell everyone.” “My kid sister is looking pretty serious - what is it? You are not sure what next to write about in that book of yours?” “I have got a job at Florexpo where they grow orchids. I am going to start working there next Monday. They are giving jobs out for three months at a time. If I work for a few months like this I can save some money so I can go to university. They will pay 2,200 pesos a day, so I can take care of the house and Mummy for a little while. I will go to university next year -don’t worry.” Maricella’s Journal Entry: 18th April Night time (The candle is dripping and spluttering - I had better write fast before it burns right down.) Phew - well, at least I told them. Mummy cried and cried and said she was ordering me not to take the job. She said that her eyes hurt too much for her to read easily, and this will happen to me too, so I will not be able to read at all in a few years time. Lorena shouted at me for doing this without talking to her, and then said that Florarosa is much better than Florexpo or Floracarnation because growing roses takes much less work than growing orchids or carnations - and much less chemicals, too. She also went on and on about men taking advantage of pretty girls in the greenhouses. She said that I should just open my eyes and see how many women there are with children and with husbands, and that this will happen to me too if I do not work near her - where she can keep an eye on me. I do NOT want to work with Lorena. She is so nosy, she will tell Mummy everything, and if I do meet someone I like, I know she will scare him away. When I told I did not want her to scare my future husband away she laughed, called me horrible names and said that I was such an innocent little baby. Lorena then told Mummy that she should go and work at Florarosa because there they give the workers a blood check every month. Mummy laughed - she said she was over thirty five years old, and no one took in a woman over thirty-five into the greenhouses. Lorena then said “See!” and kept saying how the carnations are ruining Mummy’s life - her health, especially, and that Mummy’s supervisor is a cabron, so why does no one listen to her and work in a better job where life is easier. Mummy then shouted at Lorena (I was glad that they had forgotten about me…) and said that the union at Florexpo was going to come in and help the workers with their managers, not like the association they had at Florarosa. Then she started shaking she was so angry and said why did Lorena always treat Mummy like Mummy was a fool who could not see her nose in front of her face. Mummy then remembered about me and said how could someone as clever as me be so stupid as to think that working in the greenhouses would help me go to university. She doesn’t really understand anything about what life is like nowadays, I think. Mummy and Lorena almost woke up Amalia because they were talking so loudly. But I just kept saying I was going to go and work at Florexpo and no one can stop me. I tried to tell them that the job would not involve as much bending and lifting as their jobs. Florexpo now wants workers who can read and write, and part of my job is to write down which flowers are growing where. Maybe they will even let me help them write out notices about the flowers. I told them that I would be getting 2,200 pesos a day [note: $1 equals 2,000 pesos] - above the minimum wage - and they both laughed. Mummy said she got 2,500 pesos a day now, so how were they going to give me, this chicken-barely-hatched out of an egg, 2,000 pesos. And then Mummy said she was not going to let me go on the workers’ bus to Florexpo because she had heard what some of those young boys did to the girls. As if she thinks I can’t look after myself. Lorena makes me SO mad - said that I was stupid even though I read all “these fancy books” is what she said. She said did I not know that if I was going to get a job I should have gone to her at Florarosa because there they give health insurance to the workers, so at least, then, Mummy would have some insurance for her doctor’s visits. That got Mummy going again -she shouted at both Lorena and me about how I was her baby, that she had lost Anna to the United States and now she was losing me. Then I said that Anna had asked me to go to Los Angeles to stay with her. I was so upset that I told Mummy that Anna had lost her job, that her husband had gone 800 kilometers away to look for work, and that at least Anna thought of me as a grown up by asking me to go and stay with her and go to university there. Lorena then told me to “shut up” because Mummy went quiet when she heard about Anna. Mummy then said she was tired, that I am her daughter and that I must do what she tells me to and went to bed. Lorena then talked quietly to me about Florexpo and how the foremen there do things to the women workers and say that if the women do not let the men kiss them and things like that, then the women will lose their jobs. She said she would ask at Florarosa to see if they had any jobs I could do, because then she could take care of me. And that sometimes, I might be able to go with her Rodrigo in the lorry to Bogota to deliver flowers, and see Julio that way too. Lorena also told me that if I want to work in flowers, then Florarosa is a good place because they work as a team there. Lorena is on the green team, which she told me is the fastest team, which means that they get more money than other workers. She said I should think about working at Florarosa because she could probably get me onto the green team - she said I was a “good little worker.” How she patronizes me! Anna has started asking me to go to Los Angeles now. Perhaps I can go there (it will take me one and a half years to find the money for the travel, though), learn English while I clean houses with Anna, and then come back to Bogota and teach English here. Julio is always saying that everyone in Bogota is trying to learn English so they can start businesses. Now I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to make Mummy unhappy, but I must work if she is to get medical treatment. I don’t want to work at Florarosa where Lorena will boss me about even more than she does now. Los Angeles is so far way from Mummy but maybe I can go there, and try to get work so that I can send Mummy money for her doctor’s visits. I am scared to go the United States- I have read so much about how hard life is there for people like me. Oh, how I wish we were rich! Daddy - why did you have to die like that? What should I do? Forthcoming |
||||||||
|
This site is
maintained by John Foran |
||||||||
